Holy biodiversity, Batman!

For the January 13th show, we wrapped up 2009 by talking about TIME's top ten new species discovered during the year. One of my favorites included Ratzilla (pictured left), a 3-foot long rat found on New Guinea. Other awesome finds were glow-in-the-dark mushrooms and the bones of the world's largest (and sadly extinct) snake, Titanoboa cerrejonensis.

As for the news, we heard about:

• a natural pot-like compound that could fight obesity
• a crustacean that eats wood
• how a sewage leak might threaten the Buffalo National River

For the sound quiz, we listened to some creatures of the Buffalo River that might be affected by the sewage leak: Louisiana Waterthrush, Belted Kingfisher (one of my all time favortie birds!), Southern Leopard Frog, River Otter, and the Raccoon.

Artists featured included: Daft Punk, Ratatat, Can, Feist, The Microphones, TV on the Radio, The Flaming lips, Dinosaur Jr., Minuit, Robert Johnson, and a Hawk and a Hacksaw.